We Can’t Abolish Ratings…

…But we can embargo them here on TVWriter™. And have been for awhile.

Our thinking is that what this site should be all about is creativity, with “business” info part of the mix because any realistic writer (um, is that a contradiction in terms?) knows business considerations have to be factored in when you’re trying to create art/content (don’t worry; we won’t say “product”) that has to pass the BigMedia gatekeeper hurdle.

Ratings are, obviously, part of the business, but paying too much heed to them has been the creative death of way too many writers/producers/shows. So far, TVWriter™ has refrained from going sheepishly to the slaughterhouse of the numbers game. No bandwidth or disk space for that poison, no sir. But, ever-curious, we’re wondering: Is this working for you?

If you think we’re wrong, let us know via e-mail or with a comment below.

One thought on “We Can’t Abolish Ratings…”

Whoever wrote this — I still haven’t figured TVWRITER.COM out — but I’ve also been married possibly a 100 years, and haven’t figured that out, either — is right-on! CREATIVITY: ‘WRITE TO TELL A STORY AND NOT SELL A STORY!” Damn, wonder who said that?!
There is, however, one problem. Or at least there used to be “one problem”: Writing for most — if not all — TV SERIES is like threading a needle blind-folded and upside down. As well as being allergic to thread.
Then what are new-comers to the trade do? Simple: “STRIVE FOR ORIGINALITY”. I’m telling you, and I think Lawrence of TVLand will agree: add a twist, a turn, a bump and jump — “Dump The Old Man Out Of The Wheelchair”!
One example, and I’ll shut up forever! There was a writer around my time by the name of Bob Heverly. A little nuts, perhaps a bit crazy, but a dream of the “Off Beat”. For example: In an “FBI” script (THAT WAS A TV SERIES) Bob wrote a scene in which a fat man walks into a cafeteria, loads his tray with a ton of fatty foods, slides into a booth, studies the feast as one might view a work of art, gently slides his fork into the mashed potatoes…when all of sudden a man slides in next to him, takes a knife from under his jacket, to which the FAT MAN says, “Please, just let me taste the potatoes first. Just the potatoes.” gs